Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Happy 2nd Birthday Lucy!

 
Little Lucy. You bring so much joy to our lives every single day. Your uniqueness in your personality and in who you are make you one very special lady and bring something so special to our family and we couldn't be more in love with you! 
 
 
 
 
We love your expressions! You have the greatest faces that express when you're happy, offended, giddy, disappointed and when you're being just a little mischievous and wanting to get into something you know you shouldn't.  You don't let things go very often especially when we're in the car. The back seat driver in you comes out often with a "whoa" when we hit a bump and mommy had to break just a little harder. We love how we (almost always) know what you're feeling.  
 


 

We learned this year that you are not a morning person. You need time to actually wake up in the morning and move at a slower pace. You don't like to talk much and you like to held. We've loved taking advantage of this time to get to snuggle and read to you in the mornings as you recover from your beauty sleep.  Every morning you insist on "making your bed" as you cover your little stuffed turtle (affectionately named Speedy) and make sure that he's kept nice and warm.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
Your loves: You love your sister and we love seeing the bond between the two of you already. You cry when we drop Aubrey off at preschool some days. You enjoy having tea parties, playing Legos with her and jumping on the trampoline together:). You love your blanket and you love wearing it like a cape. You love watching Looney Tunes. You love to put objects on your head. You love going outside. You love Murphy and love to feed him his kibble piece by piece. You love your Dido. You two have a special little bond :). You love music!  You dance to it every chance you get (even in the middle of a store), sing along to the words you know, and bob your head along to the beat in the car. You love shoes! You even walk in your sister's play high heels pretty well too :). 

There are things that we've learned that you just really dislike. You really dislike being cold and have no problem complaining about it, you can't stand having your hands dirty or sticky, and you honestly dislike meat and we think you might just be the little vegetarian in our family.  You will forgo any type of meat (including breaded chicken) for a good sized helping of a well dressed salad.  For some reason you'll also hold food in your mouth for a half hour or longer! You're picky with foods and we keep trying, but you definately have a refined palette :). 
 
 
 
 
 
 
You may be small in stature, but you make up for it in some of your physical abilities. You jump around all the time (especially to music) and you love the trampoline! You've mastered jumping on two feet for some time now.  You've scaled some tall tables and even mastered doing headstands on the wall. You've climbed out of your pack n play this year but have yet to climb out of your crib (fingers crossed!). You love going to parks and we love seeing your excitement in going down slides and swinging on swings. Your little legs can take you places quickly and your run is fast! At the beginning of this year you balanced yourself walking with your arms stretched behind your back, but you've now come a long way :). 
 
 
 
 
 
You are one determined little girl! And you can definitely hold your own! When you put your mind to something there is no stopping you. When you know what you want you're going for it! On top of being determined you are very resourceful :). If you want something on the counter (M&Ms to be exact) you'll grab the step stool, get it lined up in position, and climb to whatever you want using the help of the cabinet handles to climb on and get the prize. That stool has traveled to almost every room in the house.  It has helped you get your toothbrush, toys, makeup, and anything else you are generally curious about :).
 
 
 
 
 
This year you've starting speaking so much! Although some of your words and "phrases" are still a bit incoherent you're making sense. You're putting together multiple words and sentences together and it's been so interesting and fun to hear your little voice develop. Some of your phrases and words include: "baukie"  (blanket), "pie" (pacifier), "guago" (thank you), "we-wa" (Leah), "hi kitty" (Hello Kitty), "sneaky pee pee" (stinky pee pee), "maggie-book" (magazine), "wa-wa" (water), "fifi" (Murphy-grandparent's dog), "bye bye daddy's car" whenever we leave our garage, and Mexico (stated in an authentic accent) just to name a few. Some phrases are as clear as day like, "I did it!" and  "I love you mo" which we love hearing you say :). You always say, "So sorry" when you're apologizing :). 
 
 
 
  
Every color has been yellow the last couple of months but now we have moved on to every color being pink :). 
 


 
You refer to most animals by their sound rather than their name :). Baa, moo, meow all identify different animals. Your horse pajamas are "neigh" pajamas. "Meow sing" is a phrase you say when your toy cat starts to purr. Some animals have come around by their names such as duckie, doggie, turtle and fishy. 





 
Our little Lucy. Everyday is a new adventure with you and we are so incredibly blessed to be your parents. This year your exuberance, your joyfulness, your energy and your strong personality have come alive and so many smiles have come to our faces because of you. You're quirky, adventurous, funny, independent and spunky all wrapped up into one petite little package. 
 



 
 
We love squeezing you, holding your tiny hands, hearing you laugh and watching you play. The way you learn amazes us. We can't wait to see how God uses your unique abilities and talents He has given you! 





 

 
We love you to pieces our blue eyed little babe!  Happy 2nd Birthday Lucy!
Love,
Daddy and Mommy
 

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Life is Fragile...

 
We all know that life is fragile and every day is a gift, but sometimes it doesn't really sink in until something makes it hit home in a very real way.
 
That was two weeks ago for us.
 
In one day we found out that both our niece Norah and my bother Jeremy were both in the hospital.  Norah had an awful virus that made her terribly sick.  She was in the hospital for a day and still had severe symptoms of the virus within the week.  She has now thankfully come out of that virus and with some pretty significant weight loss, yet she is back to eating, drinking and being her happy self!!  We are so thankful for that!!
 
 
Jeremy, on the other hand, did not end up with a virus.  He was dismissed from the hospital about three weeks back with a "virus."  They tested him for the flu, but that came back negative and he was sent home to recover from whatever this was.  Within the five days that followed his symptoms went from bad to worse.  He was admitted to the hospital on a Tuesday and within hours he was in emergency, life saving surgery.  Two days later, another surgery.  In the end he had an extremely bad, life threatening infection that affected tissues in his body and the only way the doctors could combat this infection was to remove the affected tissues and start him on heavy antibiotics right away.  Our family has been through their fair share of surgeries, but what struck hard was when the surgeon said he had a 50/50 chance of coming out of this alive before his first surgery. 
 
A 50/50 chance?!  This just couldn't be real!  A young, 27-year-old, healthy, 6 foot-5inch guy couldn't just get something that bad to be life threatening!  When that reality hit, it hit me hard and it took me a day to realize the severity of the situation and to wrap my head around what had happened.  Underlying every emotion, I was so incredibly thankful to God for sparing my brother's life!!  Something in him told him it was time to go to the hospital and the timing of that was key in saving him.  I was grateful for modern medicine and the wonderful team of doctors who were caring for Jeremy.  I was grateful for Jeremy.
 
 
Now it will be almost three weeks that Jeremy is in the hospital.  He has been through three surgeries now.  The distance between all of us siblings has been hard, but the distance seemed even further and more difficult now.  I just wanted to see him and know that he was ok.  I got the opportunity to go down on Friday and be with him through his most recent surgery and sit, watch movies and talk with my brother without any other distractions.  This was the first time in a LONG time that I actually had some one-on-one time with him.  Life has gotten quite busy in the last six years!  It was a relief to see him, but at the same time hard as I know the road ahead of him will not be easy.  He will need a lot of support when he is discharged from the hospital and I guess only time will tell within the week what the best option might be for him, but for now he is healing and in good care.
 

 
It is really difficult for me to articulate into words exactly how we're all feeling as a family right now, but as time goes on I know we will process everything.  For now, we are trying to be as supportive of Jeremy as we can. 
 
As I flew home on Tuesday this week and came back to my life as a wife and mom I felt a little out of place.  It seems like life should stop when something like this occurs in your family.  It's surreal and it was hard for me to get into the swing of things this week.  I know that I hugged my girls and husband a little tighter when I got home that night. 
 
 
 
Moving forward I know Jeremy has a rough road ahead but we are praying for strength, complete healing, and a peace.  He is one strong man, inside and out, and I couldn't be more thankful for him in my life than I am right now.  Love you Jeremy so very much!!